Up 2-0 against the No. 3 seed Honeoye Falls-Lima girls volleyball team, No. 2 Midlakes found itself just one game away from a return to the Section 5 Class B championship game. But, the Cougars refused to go away. HF-L came back to win the final three games to win 3-2 on Tuesday and move on.

"It was going to come down to playing our game," Screaming Eagles coach Kyle Salisbury said. "I think we played our game the first two games. (HF-L coach Rene' Monks) swapped her lineup, running a little six-two and that helped them. They got a little more offense on their opposite. The problem is those last three games we were just letting them hang around."

The game scores were 18-25, 22-25, 25-21, 25-21 and 25-23.

Midlakes defeated HF-L in the Class B finals in 2012, 3-0. Cougars junior captain Maddy Joseph said the loss was a motivator.

"I would say every time we practiced this year it was, 'We want to beat Midlakes,'" she said. That was everything we were hoping for this year."

HF-L led in game one before Midlakes came back to tie it at 11, 12, 13 and 14 before taking the lead and pulling away. In game two, the Screaming Eagles came back to tie it at four and never trailed again. The Cougars came out strong in game three and didn't trail until the Screaming Eagles took a 17-16 lead. HF-L quickly tied it at 17 and held the lead until the finish. Midlakes led by as many as two in the fourth game, but HF-L tied it at 11, 12 and again at 13 before taking the lead for good.

Despite the momentum going HF-L's way, Midlakes led 13-8 in the deciding game when the teams switched sides. The Cougars rallied to tie the game at 15 and eventually pulled ahead 17-16. Midlakes led 21-20 and 22-21, but HF-L tied it up both times. Cougars junior Arden Bonzo recorded a pair of aces to give her team a 24-22 lead, but Sara Belcher responded with a kill for the Screaming Eagles. The final point came when Midlakes' serve went into the net.

"We made a lot of silly errors in the beginning, but worked it out," Monks said. "We started playing our game, we started hitting the ball."

Midlakes finishes the season with an 18-3 record. Salisbury said it was a great season, but his team is upset they won't be able to defend the title on Friday.

Page 2 of 2 - "Now you've got to go home with shoulda, woulda, coulda's," he said. "I said, 'You can do that all you want, it doesn't change anything. Learn from the errors you made if you're an underclassmen. If you're an upperclassmen, appreciate the time you had and be glad it was hard fought.'"